What steps need to be taken before outsourcing bookkeeping?

Owing to its several advantages, outsourcing bookkeeping might seem to be too lucrative to ignore for business owners pissed off with complex and lengthy processes associated with the same. It is a win-win situation for them as they are able to cut back their expenses and are able to concentrate on their core business activities as well. The steps you need to take before hiring outsourcing bookkeeping services provider are detailed in following lines.

Shortlist a few service providers

It would be a good idea to collect information about few outsourcing bookkeeping providers by asking friends and searching internet. Your friends in this business can provide a great deal of information about the service providers with whom they might have worked in the past. You can keep such service provider in list or tick it off on basis of how well or bad your friend got treated by it.

Another way to collect such information is by scouting internet based chat forums. Such forums are pretty dynamic and you can ask for references and reviews about a particular outsourcing bookkeeping service provider. You are going to get a number of replies, both positive as well as negative. Organize your list on the basis of information that you collect in this way.

Get in touch with them one by one

Now, start getting in touch with different outsourcing bookkeeping providers one by one and check how responsive they are. Get as much as information as they can provide about their services. Check how long they have been in the business, which industry verticals do they support and whether they can provide few references to cross check their claims. The way their customer support replies to your queries can be a slight indicator of how well or bad the services of the service provider is going to be.

Another important point to enquire about is whether they have enough human resources to handle your work. At times, you might be having tons of workload and the situation would demand an adequate amount of workforce to handle the same. If a particular service provider is not having sufficient human resource pool, it is better to tick it off and continue with screening rest service providers on your list.

Get backgrounds of professionals verified by third party experts to be on the safer side rather being sorry later on. In addition, check whether Better Business Bureau can provide help in screening an outsourcing bookkeeping service provider. In case it is having any pending complaints against it, you better make note of it. You ought to seek clarification from it about the complaints, if any, or reject it completely and continue with screening process.

It is highly important that you screen various service providers as mentioned above before outsourcing bookkeeping of your company to any one of them. This will ensure that your business critical information is in safe hands and you are getting what you are paying for.